


On the rocks

by digitalsoop



Category: Free!
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-23
Updated: 2014-09-23
Packaged: 2018-02-18 11:44:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2347319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitalsoop/pseuds/digitalsoop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for tumblr user cantabrasil03. </p><p>Gou tries to talk some sense into Makoto after Haruka and Rin leave for Australia. No boyfriend of hers is going to mope around!</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the rocks

"So you finally told him?" Gou leaned forward, placing her hands firmly on the rock they were sitting on. Makoto couldn’t bring himself to lift his head, or open his mouth to reply. He nodded and hummed, clasping his hands together and letting them hang between his knees. The ocean was calm, the wind soft; the seabirds were calling out to each other, swooping in high circles above the beach. Gou sighed and turned her head, her hair catching the wind and tickling the side of his face.

"Are you regretting it?"

”Yeah,” he hesitated, unfolding his hands and looking at his palms, “I don’t think I would feel any better if I had kept it a secret. But I wish I had.”

"Don’t talk like that." Gou scowled at the water and curled her fingers against the rock. "Spending the last few months of your third year terrified of what you’ll say when you’re packing up for college—and it definitely would have been worse explaining it then, too!"

Her hair curling in the breeze and her fierce expression rendered Makoto speechless. That seemed to suit her just fine, because she took a deep breath and faced him. “Not every relationship can stay perfect, Makoto. People have disagreements and arguments all the time! It doesn’t mean that there’s no coming back from it. Look at Haruka and my brother! They just needed to understand each other, and you and Haruka already have that much, so you’ll be able to make up even faster. Even Chigusa and I bicker sometimes, but we never stop being friends.”

She leaned towards him and grabbed his hands, a stern look on her face. “You understand Haruka better than anyone else. Do you really think that he would never forgive you?”

The answer should have been immediate, but Makoto could only glance towards the ocean and frown. He had never seen the Haruka that he had argued with; he didn’t understand the Haruka that he had argued with. He wanted to tell her that he wasn’t sure, but Gou’s earnest gaze made him pause. Maybe he didn’t understand that Haruka well enough to know when he would be forgiven, but the Haruka he knew hadn’t simply vanished; the Haruka he knew was afraid of taking that step forward into the unknown. That was something that had always been true about Haruka. He liked familiarity, he liked his routine, he liked his habits. Everything around him was changing and he didn’t know what to do. He had felt the same not long ago. If he was honest with himself, he still felt that way.

"No," he decided.

"See? Don’t worry so much. Just be patient, and let my brother try to return the favor—even if he is going about it in a pretty extreme way—I mean just going to Australia like that—"

"I really wasn’t expecting him to go that far when I told him what had happened." Makoto chuckled, casting an uncertain glance towards the water. "I just hope it helps Haruka, instead of—"

"Scaring him more?" Gou laughed when Makoto looked at her with his eyes wide. "I don’t know anyone that’s not at least a tiny bit scared of change. Would it scare you more? Realizing that there’s so much more out there that you don’t know and haven’t seen?"

"I don’t know. Maybe. Would it scare you?"

"Maybe."

Gou kicked her feet and Makoto leaned back. The seabirds cried out, and Gou tilted her head back to watch them complete their careful circles. He didn’t have to leave the country to realize that there was so much more out there that he had never experienced, that there were things he knew nothing about; just looking at Gou, with her fiery hair and pink lips, filled with so much energy and determination she practically glowed—she was nearly as terrifying as the unknown future ahead of him.

But she was scared, too.

He leaned closer, catching her by surprise with a chaste kiss on her cheek. She gaped, silently demanding an explanation or reason that Makoto didn’t really have. He smiled and leaned in again, and Gou had just enough time to close her mouth and receive a very long kiss on the lips. When he pulled away, his ears bright pink and a hand nearly covering his mouth, she hunched her shoulders and casually leaned into his side.

"You and Haruka will still be friends," she muttered. "You’ll see."


End file.
